‘Ukraine should learn Afghanistan lessons, should not get involved in big power games,’ says Hamid Karzai

In interview 6 months after Taliban takeover, Former Afghan President also calls on India to reopen Embassy, re–engage with Afghanistan

There is definitely an economic situation, there is definitely a hardship, there is definitely much lesser income coming to the Afghan people. The reasons are clear: the closure of banking interactions between the Afghan banks and the foreign banks, the fact that hundreds of thousands of Afghans have left the country and among them, some very, very educated Afghans, the fact of the massive change that occurred, and before that the drought that affected Afghanistan. We hope things will ease a bit, there’s the United Nations programme of assistance to the Afghan people, there is also the rest of the world helping, there is this immensely kind assistance from India coming to Afghanistan in terms of medical supplies and other necessities, especially the wheat that India has sent Afghanistan. I want to emphasise my gratitude to India and to the people of India. So we hope that the situation will be ameliorated slowly, slowly as we move on, especially that the U.S. government has now issued licences to international banks for linking and working with Afghan banking sector.

Absolutely. The tragedy in Ukraine has taken away attention from Afghanistan. We still keep receiving the assistance that was promised to Afghanistan, the engagement that was there is carrying on. But in terms of the larger international attention to the Afghan people and the situation here, that has decreased as a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine.

Look, we are ourselves a war–devastated country, a conflict–devastated country. So, while we understand Russia’s security concerns, we as a war–devastated country, fully and deeply commiserate with the people of Ukraine for the sufferings that they are going through, and we wish them peace and stability as soon as possible. Afghanistan has gained a lot of experience… countries like us, Afghanistan and Ukraine, we should not get involved in big power games. The consequence of that is always that we get stepped over. And I hope the Ukrainian leadership will recognise by now the mistakes made and correct this.

There is already talk of mercenaries and foreign fighters coming from the rest of the world to Ukraine. In Afghanistan, some mercenaries came to our country. And the consequence of those coming from abroad, just like al–Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and the rest of them, you saw the consequences of that for Afghanistan. If I were Ukrainian, if I were making decisions in Ukraine, I would by all means, stop the arrival of foreign mercenaries to my country, keeping Afghanistan’s tragic experience in mind. We’re suffering from that till today.

The money that the United States seized from Afghanistan, the Afghan assets in the U.S. banks. One reason given was that. So that should be a lesson that the Ukrainians should learn from and walk away from these extremely dangerous games that others may play on their soil.

As for the functioning of the of the caretaker government, it’s a de facto government. It’s there, it’s working and international communities dealing with it as such. We were happy that the conflict ended in Afghanistan. We were very happy that young people dying on both sides of the conflict is no longer seen in our country, that there is an end to conflict. We would like this end to conflict to mature into complete peace for Afghanistan, to mature into durable peace for Afghanistan. This takes the initiative of the current interim administration, caretaker administration of the Taliban to approach all other Afghans who for whatever reason may be unhappy with the situation, to bring them together to Afghan decision–making on the issues that are important nationally for our people.

There are three ways possible in Afghanistan for that: one is an election, the other is a referendum. If these are not possible, then we have that extremely strong and old Afghan tradition of the Loya Jirga that can provide legitimacy, that can provide solutions, that can provide advice. So my advice strongly is that the country should go through a process of meetings and consultations among Afghans on issues that are important for us, and then taking matters to the approval of the Afghan Loya Jirga. That will set the course towards a more normal, more durable peace for our country.